GOP Senators Want to Scuttle Defense Cuts

Three of the allegedly moderate Republicans in the Senate — John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Kelly Ayotte — are working to make sure not one dollar comes out of the defense budget. Because it will harm our national security, so be afraid, be very afraid.

“This past weekend, President Obama’s own Secretary of Defense said the budget cuts looming under sequestration will ‘weaken the United States’ and ‘make it much more difficult for us to respond to crises in the world.’ The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff agreed that ‘we will become less safe’ if these cuts go through.

“While the President last year promised that sequestration ‘will not happen,’ he has declined to address this looming crisis for more than a year. We appreciate that the President now wants to come to the negotiating table and we will examine his proposal closely.

“Every time we have a crisis in this country, President Obama’s solution is to raise taxes. With the economy still struggling and job growth very weak, the last thing America needs is a tax increase.

“In the coming days, we will be introducing legislation – as we did last year – to avoid the first year of defense budget cuts by reducing the size of the federal workforce though attrition as recommended by the Simpson-Bowles Commission. This common-sense approach avoids a damaging self-inflicted wound to America’s security, and we hope the President will join us in this effort.”

Oh god yes. If we cut $50 billion out of the $750 billion defense budget, we’ll reduce our total share of the world’s military spending down to almost 45%. How ever will we defend ourselves with a military more than five times larger and 100 times more powerful than the next strongest country? I’ll be shaking in fear! And isn’t it amazing that the only government spending that ever spurs the economy is military spending?